A competent business analyst has to have both analytical thinking and problem solving skills in order to effectively analyze problems, identify opportunities and other necessary changes which would deliver on value and work with the stakeholders to understand the impact of those changes.
The business analyst uses analytical thinking to quickly understand information such as diagrams, stakeholder concerns, customer feedback, schematics, user guides, and spreadsheets, and figure out which ones are relevant.
Having a clear understanding of the analytical thinking and problem solving core competencies allows business analyst’s to identify the best ways to present information to their stakeholders.
For example, some concepts are more easily understood when presented visually through diagrams and information graphics rather than by paragraphs of text.
Knowing this would help the business analysts plan their business analysis approach and enable them to communicate the business analysis information in a way that best suits the audience.
There are seven analytical thinking and problem solving core competencies and they are:
- Creative Thinking.
- Decision Making.
- Learning.
- Problem Solving.
- Systems Thinking.
- Conceptual Thinking.
- Visual Thinking.